ESCOBAR SUGGESTS HE MAY SURRENDER

Published: September 9, 1992

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept. 8—
Pablo Escobar, the fugitive Colombian cocaine lord who escaped in July from a luxurious prison, has said he will consider surrendering, but warned that any attempt by the United States to abduct him would bring grave consequences.

In remarks published today in the newspaper El Nuevo Siglo, the Medellin cartel boss said he might turn himself in if the Government insured his safety and provided a jail in his home state of Antioquia.

Mr. Escobar gave himself up in June 1991, but after his escape six weeks ago an embarrassed President Cesar Gaviria declared that any new surrender would have to be unconditional.

El Nuevo Siglo said it sent questions to Mr. Escobar -- it did not indicate how -- and received his replies in the mail. To guarantee the authenticity of his replies, Mr. Escobar included his thumb print and a cassette recording of his voice. A Warning to the U.S.

Asked about the possibility of being captured by the United States, Mr. Escobar said, "The United States could expose itself to the kidnapping of its own citizens who could be exchanged for those abducted" by American agents.

Mr. Escobar and nine of his lieutenants walked past hundreds of army soldiers on July 22 during a failed Government attempt to transfer them to a military camp.

Since then Mr. Escobar has evaded a huge manhunt mounted by the Government, probably by hiding out in a network of safe houses he has cultivated over the years.

The United States is conducting surveillance flights over Antioquia in an attempt to find Mr. Escobar, who has been indicted in several United States courts on charges of terrorism, murder and cocaine trafficking. The Bush Administration has also added $2 million to the $1.4 million bounty the Colombian Government has put on Mr. Escobar's head.

Mr. Escobar told El Nuevo Sieglo that he would accept a less luxurious jail than the one from which he escaped in the mountains surrounding his hometown of Envigado.

The inmates had their own Jacuzzis, wet bars, wide-screen televisions, cellular phones, computers, fax machines and even weapons.

Officials say that during his yearlong stay in Envigado, Mr. Escobar put up photos of himself dressed as Pancho Villa and Al Capone and gave parties where prison guards served as waiters. He also continued running his multibillion-dollar drug empire from jail, ordering killings and holding kangaroo trials in which he sentenced cartel rivals to death, officials said. 'Modest' Jail Needed

Mr. Escobar said that he was not sure if he would surrender again but that his lawyers had contacted the General Prosecutor's office to negotiate a possible sentence.

He said he would need "a very humble and modest jail in Antioquia, but with the absolute guarantee that I would not be transferred for any reason and with the same guarantees that every Colombian prisoner has."

In an interview with the Caracol radio network today, the General Prosecutor, Gustavo de Greiff, insisted that he was not negotiating with Mr. Escobar's lawyers. But he said incarceration in Antioquia was a possibility because all Colombian prisoners had the right to be jailed near their families.

President Gaviria came under fire for his 1991 deal with Mr. Escobar and other Medellin cartel leaders, which offered them special jails and reduced sentences in exchange for surrendering.

Mr. Escobar, whom the police accuse of murdering thousands, says he believes he must remain in Antioquia if he is to avoid being killed by enemies who include the police, the families of people he supposedly killed, the United States and rival drug traffickers.